The Misappliance Of Science

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Bumblebees say, "Figure it out your damn self."

Debunked: Scientists once concluded that it was "impossible" for bumblebees to fly.

This is a very old anti-science legend, trying to make scientists appear foolish for denying or not understanding obvious reality.

This very likely apocryphal tale has it that an engineer went to a party, and there he remarked that he had been studying the aerodynamic attributes of the bumblebee and could not figure out how they flew. By all rights it should not be able to store enough power to beat its wings enough to maintain flight. A reporter was in attendance, and he publicized the tale that we know as the UL today.

A trip over to this sci.aeronautics thread should be enough to impress anyone who gets all intimidated by phrases like "horrendous L/D penalties" and "small Reynolds numbers". Like me.

Of particular note, this post in that thread very lucidly attacks the logic of the tale in an AFU-typical debunking fashion, as opposed to the other posts which dwell on the intimidating yet strangely fascinating jargon of aeronautic science. It sounds like aeronautic engineers have been able to explain bumblebee flight for a looong time, they just have lousy press agents.

References:

• Sci.aeronautics thread
• Sci.aeronautics moderator gets testy with this UL